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| Today’s Top Story
White House to stop ACA subsidy payments
The Hill reports that the Trump administration will no longer make cost sharing reduction payments to insurers that participate in Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces. The payments are designed to subsidize insurance purchases for lower income consumers. However, Congress never directly appropriated funds for the payments, and they have since been the subject of a lawsuit. In August 2017, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office projected that cutting off the payments would reduce the number of insured by about 1 million people in 2018, increase premium prices by about 20 percent, and increase the federal deficit by $194 billion through 2026.
Read more…
Read the memo (PDF)…
Read the CBO report…
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| Other News
President signs executive order on health care
President Trump has signed an executive order designed to ease restrictions on association health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act. As reported in MedScape, “Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition across the United States” will allow association plans to cross state lines, potentially creating much larger insurance groups that would not be subject to ACA essential benefit requirements, cost caps, and a ban on charging higher rates to people with preexisting conditions. Supporters of the move project it will drive down healthcare costs for plan participants. Critics say it could drive healthier consumers away from ACA exchanges and increase insurance rates for exchange participants.
Read more…
Read the White House statement…
Read the executive order…
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| Election period now open to form virtual group for 2018 MIPS
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) states that the election period is now open to form a virtual group for the 2018 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Providers can choose to participate in MIPS as a virtual group for the 2018 performance period. To form a virtual group, the agency has proposed the following two-stage, virtual group election process:
- Stage 1 (optional): Solo practitioners and groups with 10 or fewer eligible clinicians may contact their designated Technical Assistance representative or the Quality Payment Program Service Center to determine if they are eligible to join or form a virtual group.
- Stage 2: For groups that choose not to participate in Stage 1 of the election process, CMS will determine if they are eligible in Stage 2. During Stage 2, virtual groups must name an official representative who will submit their elections to CMS via email (below) by Dec. 1, 2017.
The deadline for virtual groups to make an election for the 2018 MIPS performance period is Dec. 1, 2017.
Learn more about MIPS…
Submit an election to CMS (email)…
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| Study: Obesity linked to increased risk of THA failure and early revision for aseptic loosening
Findings published online in The Journal of Arthroplasty suggest that obesity may be independently associated with early primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) failure and early revision THA for aseptic loosening. Members of the research team retrospectively reviewed data on 684 consecutive failed THA cases referred to a single academic center for revision. They found no significant association between obesity and cause of THA failure. However, the overall rate of primary THA failure before 5 years was 48.8 percent in obese patients and 37.1 percent in non-obese patients, and the rate of primary THA failure for aseptic loosening before 5 years was 30 percent in obese patients and 18 percent in non-obese patients. The research team notes that obesity was not a risk for revision for infection, but American Society for Anesthesiologists class ≥3 was independently associated with increased odds of primary THA failure for infection.
Read the abstract…
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| Study: Romosozumab followed by alendronate may reduce risk of fracture compared to alendronate alone for older women with osteoporosis
A study published online in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that, among high-risk, postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, romosozumab treatment followed by alendronate may reduce risk of fracture more than alendronate alone. The authors conducted a randomized, controlled trial of 4,093 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and a fragility fracture treated with either monthly subcutaneous romosozumab (210 mg; n = 2,046) or weekly oral alendronate (70 mg; n = 2,047) for 12 months, followed by open-label alendronate in both cohorts. At 24-month follow-up, they found that 127 patients (6.2 percent) in the romosozumab-to-alendronate group experienced a new vertebral fracture, compared to 243 (11.9 percent) patients in the alendronate only group. In addition, clinical fractures occurred in 198 patients (9.7 percent) in the romosozumab-to-alendronate group and 266 patients (13.0 percent) in the alendronate only group. The authors write that adverse events and serious adverse events were balanced between the two groups.
Read the abstract…
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| Study: Rapamycin treatment linked to inhibition of HO in rats
Data from a rat study published online in The American Journal of Pathology suggest that an already available drug may help inhibit heterotopic ossification (HO) following trauma. The researchers used a rat model of blast-related, polytraumatic extremity injury. They found that treatment with rapamycin was associated with significant attenuation of total new bone and soft tissue ectopic bone; connective tissue progenitor cells; platelet-derived growth factor receptor-α-positive cells; α-smooth muscle actin-positive blood vessels; and key extracellular matrix remodeling osteogenesis, inflammation, and angiogenesis genes. They observed no wound healing complications.
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Read the abstract…
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| Your AAOS
Call for volunteers: Exhibits Committee
Oct. 23, 2017, is the last day to submit your application for a position on the Exhibits Committee. This committee oversees the technical exhibits program at the AAOS Annual Meeting. Applicants for this position must be active fellows, associate members orthopaedic, associate members osteopathic, or international members with experience developing education programs and cultivating industry relationships.
Learn more and submit your application… (member login required)
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| AAOS Headline News Now is a thrice-weekly member service produced by the AAOS Publications Department.
Disclaimer: The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons is not responsible for the privacy policy, the content or the accuracy of any Web site accessed through a link on the AAOS Web site A link to other Web sites does not constitute an endorsement by the AAOS of the linked site, its products or services. |
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